Hector Mendoza - John Deere 60

The memories I share are probably just like anyone else, who has grown up in a farm with a John Deere tractor. Back in South Texas about 60 miles west of Corpus Christi, my dad bought a plot of 100 acres and rented and additional 240 acres. We had a dairy of about 50 cows and woke up around 4:30 to 5am every morning since the 7th grade till after a year after graduating high school. We used this old 60 to plow, disk, rake, plant, cultivate about 300 acres of alternating crops, such as corn, sorghum, corn, oats, flax, corn, cotton, and sudan grazing grass...still remember the sweet juice from, a few acres of sugar cane. I learned to drive the old tractor around 10 years old, pulling hay trailer or seed drills around the field and remember how exciting it was to be behind the wheel, the loud noise and smell of exhaust and pulling the clutch, I had to pull hard to release it, till my dad re-adjusted it so it would be easier for me. I remember pulling fallen trees, dead cows, pulling the old truck so as to start it.. then I grew up and learned to plow and plant, cultivate, etc... In Ben Bolt High School, I was active in the FFA, of which I was awarded the Star Chapter Farmer award. I also competed in and won Texas State cotton, grass, and soil judging FFA contests, this might not be popular today, but it sure meant a lot back then. Did not serve in the military, 3 brothers were in the service, in the 60's, besides my lottery number was 283, so I enrolled in Del Mar College in Corpus Christi... Became a mud engineer for Halliburton and they flew me into the middle of Wyoming, I worked in North Dakota, Montana, Utah and Colorado for a few years before the 1975 oil bust.. Moved to Denver, around 1976 and worked as a carpenter for few years, I earned an associate’s degree in computer programming from Auraria Community College back in 1982, worked as a computer contractor for US government and Colorado State agencies since then, retired 2 years ago... and back working on the John Deere tractor.